Canada Tibet Committee reaches out directly to Chinese Canadians

(MONTREAL) – The Canada Tibet Committee has taken out a full page ad in a Canadian Chinese-language paper, to bring a recent message from the Dalai Lama directly to Chinese Canadians.

"We are troubled by recent statements from the Chinese government that serve only to manufacture ethnic strife," said CTC executive director Dermod Travis. "We hope that by publishing the Dalai Lama's message in Chinese, we can open a direct and constructive dialogue between our communities in Canada, and ultimately with Chinese citizens within China."

The CTC ad, a message from the Dalai Lama translated from the original Tibetan into Chinese, appears in Toronto's Chinese News (Da Zhong Bao) on Friday. "We are saddened by Sing Tao's refusal to accept this ad," Travis said.

In the wake of international reporting about an outbreak of primarily peaceful protests in Tibet, the Chinese government embarked on what the CTC considers to be a campaign to discredit western media and the Dalai Lama. "We are concerned that their tactics may have been adopted by some newspapers serving Canada's Chinese communities," Travis said. "Building a future for an autonomous Tibet within China will require that outdated 'Cold War style' prejudices be left behind."

The CTC plans a number of programs to continue in building a dialogue with Chinese-Canadians over the coming weeks.

The Canada Tibet Committee is an independent non-governmental organisation of Tibetans and non-Tibetans living in Canada, who are concerned about the continuing human rights violations and lack of democratic freedom in Tibet.